Search the letters

The Vaughan Williams Foundation has made over 5000 items freely available: chiefly letters from Ralph Vaughan Williams, but including some responses which shed light on the subject matter, and also a number of letters from Adeline and Ursula Vaughan Williams. These provide further information and often include messages or observations from Ralph, and there are also letters from Adeline and Ursula written on behalf of the couple. The text of letters written by RVW and UVW remain the copyright of the Foundation.

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The letters are in tabular form and can be sorted by column, or filtered by any keyword including name, musical title, year or subject (singly or in combination). Partial matches will also be found, e.g. searching “sky” will also find “Stravinsky”. To search for a phrase use inverted commas, e.g. “New York”.

To search by letter number, include the prefix VWL, e.g. VWL123.

Filter letters

Letter No. Title Date Date on Letter
VWL2929 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert John Sumsion 1953---- [1953 or later]
VWL2931 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Gerald Finzi 19481211 Dec 11 [1948]
VWL2932 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Sidney P. Waddington 19481215 Dec 15 [1948]
VWL2935 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19481216 16th December, 1948.
VWL2941 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490106 Jan 6 1949
VWL2942 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490114 Jan 14 [1949]
VWL2943 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Veronica Gotch 19490124 [About 24th January 1949]
VWL2944 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Hamber 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2945 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490126 26th January, 1949.
VWL2947 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490209 9th February, 1949.
VWL2950 Foreword from Ralph Vaughan Williams to the Society for the Promotion of New Music 195403-- [About March 1954]
VWL2951 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Warrack (OUP) 195403-- [March 1954]
VWL2954 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490217 17th February, 1949.
VWL2955 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490225 25th February, 1949.
VWL2956 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490228 Feb 28 [1949]
VWL2957 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Barbirolli 19490303 March 3 [1949]
VWL2958 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Guthrie Foote (OUP) 19490303 March 3 [1949]
VWL2959 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL2960 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Harriet Cohen 19490309 9th March, 1949
VWL2961 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Katharine Thomson 19490315 March 15 [1949]
VWL2962 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to John Warrack 195405-- [May 1954]
VWL2965 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19550103 Jan 3 [1955]
VWL2966 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael Kennedy 19550113 Jan 13 1955
VWL2967 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Stanley Godman 19550114 Jan 14 1955
VWL2969 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Alan Frank (OUP) 19490316 March 16 [1949]
VWL2971 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Herbert Howells 19490317 [17 March 1949]
VWL2976 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Eric Walter White 19490325 25th March, 1949.
VWL2983 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490413 13th April, 1949.
VWL2987 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Leonard Smith 19490428 28th April, 1949.
VWL2988 Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Michael and Eslyn Kennedy 19550117 January 17th 1955.

You have never lost your invention but it has not developed enough.  Your best – your most original and beautiful style or ‘atmosphere’ is an indescribable sort of feeling as if one was listening to very lovely lyrical poetry.

GUSTAV HOLST letter to RVW 1903

He was one of the most 'complete' men I have ever known. He loved life, he loved work and his interest in all music was unquenchable and insatiable.

SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI, conductor

I was thunderstruck by the symphony last night - and hadn't expected to be. Jagged, pulsating and angry, from that very first clanging dissonance - how can it have come from the same source as the Tallis Fantasia?

AUDIENCE MEMBER, Newbury Festival